send me ‘I do’ for a starter of an arranged marriage between our muses.[ no longer accepting ]

      With the submission of the North on the horizon, the South was unable to stand on their own. with the men only just returning to find that the freshly fallen snow had been stained crimson, there was little they could do to negotiate the inevitable fate of their heirs. 

            the first born son of Hakoda had already been wed to a Kyoshi warrior to improve relations in the Earth Kingdom (a facade; all these lands fell under Ozai and his crooked hands) and the Northern princess was safe from emigration: she’d married young, to a waterbending noble to continue the sacred bloodline. the Southern princess had never met her, but stories of her kindness and courage spanned even to the crevices of ice where her mother used to hide with her and tell her little things of the past, things that no longer were. 

      it was originally planned for Katara, the youngest of the water heirs, to be wed to the first son of Ozai (a truce, a sick apology for destroying her home, her family) but by the time she was of age (by terms of a treaty) the boy had fallen for a nonbender, the perfect Fire Lady, and this became more suitable: after all, a waterbending Fire Lady? ridiculous. unheard of. (but if the fire girl had her way, they’d have to become familiar with the idea– Katara had heard of the princess’ ambitions, and while the idea was terrifying, there was also an aspect of awe, something she found herself desiring if only for the irony)

                  so a ’non-traditional’ union was to be formed, one the Fire Nation would have looked down upon in the past and the Water Tribes had never considered. wed the two youngest heiresses to each other, form a bond unheard of (more familiar, soft, they said– but Katara was stronger, stronger than anyone they’d ever met, and she didn’t go down without a fight). the young waterbender fights with her fists and her element and her icy words but there is no escaping her fate (if only there’d been some kind of miracle all those years ago, all before her life was turned upside down, if only she’d made a discovery – something that might have filled the empty space in her chest). 

            her name is Azula, they tell her. she’s pretty, long black hair, beautiful golden eyes. (Katara’s never seen golden eyes before, but she imagines them as ugly as those ships the fire people send over every once in a while) the princess is supposed to be a prodigy as well, and compared to that, Katara is nothing. there’s almost no hope of finding a waterbending master in the Fire Nation, but when her guardians turn their eyes, she practices everything she knows – to defend herself from that horrible other girl, she tells herself. 

      this is not how it was supposed to be, she tells herself as she dons her crystal blue attire. today marks the fourth week on this wretched ship, and today they will dock and she will meet her… betrothed. (she refuses to be someone’s leftovers, though, to be the last resort. this union will mean nothing, there is no love between two who must hate each other, destined to hate each other.) she closes her eyes and brushed her fingers against her mother’s necklace, and she hears them draw open the great, steel doors, and with heavy footsteps she moves to face the biggest challenge she’s ever met.